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Aug 13, 2023

How to Calculate and Improve Your Diet's Carbon Footprint

Learn how to reduce the carbon emissions from your meals while also improving your well-being. Research shows that people's dietary choices can impact the climate crisis. As scary as this sounds, all

Learn how to reduce the carbon emissions from your meals while also improving your well-being.

Research shows that people's dietary choices can impact the climate crisis. As scary as this sounds, all it takes is a bit of self-educating and a few tweaks to your food choices that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

From plastic footprint calculators to tools for assessing your diet, here are some handy digital resources you can use to help reduce your carbon footprint for better well-being.

Your carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions you generate through your personal actions. These can include your home energy consumption, the type of vehicle you use or drive, and your food choices.

When it comes to your diet, several factors can impact your carbon footprint, including:

Reducing your carbon footprint can help fight climate change and support your health. If you’re keen to learn more about your diet's carbon footprint and how to make changes to improve both your well-being as well as the health of the planet, take a look at the following apps and resources.

Food waste is a global problem that you might be unwittingly contributing to. Not only can throwing away food be a waste of money, but it also adds to your carbon footprint. According to the Energy Saving Trust, approximately 8–10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions relate to food waste.

While food waste is a worldwide issue, it can be tackled on an individual level with a little digital help. The EmptyMyFridge app can help you plan healthy meals while reducing your food waste by encouraging you to use up perishable food that you already have at home. Simply add the ingredients and food that you already have in your fridge (or pantry) and the app’s AI will generate a list of recommended recipes.

Read our guide on how to use EmptyMyFridge to reduce your food waste to learn how to get started with and make the most of the app to improve your diet's carbon footprint.

Download: EmptyMyFridge for Android | iOS (Free)

If you want an app that will help you make better food choices to offset your carbon footprint, then try Klima. You don’t even need to sign up to generate your carbon footprint estimate—simply open the app and follow the onscreen prompts to enter details about your daily habits.

Beyond calculating your dietary carbon footprint—with no strings attached—it’s still worthwhile creating an account on the Klima app if you’d like to make some changes to (or even offset) your dietary carbon footprint.

Once you’ve calculated your carbon footprint, you can use the app to offset your impact by joining climate solution projects. These can range from funding tree planting to providing alternatives to fossil fuels, such as hydropower. You can offset your carbon footprint by choosing a monthly subscription fee suited to your wallet that will then be invested in certified climate projects.

By offsetting your carbon footprint through these projects, you don’t have to make drastic changes to your diet. Klima also suggests transport and lifestyle changes that you can make to better reduce your carbon footprint.

Download: Klima for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

Often, the best route to making positive decisions and changes is to start with education. Before you’re able to make the right dietary choices to improve or offset your carbon footprint, you should take the time to learn about environmental issues, sustainability, and how your diet choices impact climate change.

Enter the Shelbizleee YouTube channel—an educational space run by environmental science graduate, Shelby Orme. Her videos are designed to help viewers learn how to live eco-friendly and improve their overall awareness of environmental factors, including dietary choices.

On the Shelbizleee channel, you’ll find inspirational zero-waste content, including grocery shopping videos, tips for eating out, and how to compost at home. It’s a good place to go for green ideas when it comes to your diet and other lifestyle factors that contribute to your carbon footprint.

A great way to manage your diet's carbon footprint is to use a sustainability tool that helps you reduce plastic use. Plastic pollution is again a global environmental problem, but by paying attention to where you use anything with plastic—including food packaging—you can greatly reduce your carbon footprint.

For this, you can try the Plastic Footprint Calculator—a web-based app and free online tool that you can use to assess how much plastic waste you create through your food and kitchen needs.

Alongside the calculator, you’ll find a handy breakdown of advice on plastic waste, including how to reduce your plastic footprint and the 4 R’s rule (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle). Have a good read before your next grocery haul and see where you can refuse or reduce your food plastic waste.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit organization that aims to help protect environmental and individual health.

You can learn how to reduce your diet's climate footprint by checking out the EWG’s quick tips page. Here you’ll find a free downloadable PDF tip sheet that includes an overview of the carbon footprint of different protein sources, how your diet affects the climate, and how to shrink your climate footprint.

You’ll also find information and advice on related issues on the EWG website, including agriculture’s impact on climate change. If you want to further improve your health and protect the planet, check out the EWG’s information on food and water sources and regulations, meat and dairy alternatives, and general information about farming and agriculture.

By calculating and reducing your diet's carbon footprint, you can make positive changes that will benefit both your health and the planet. Reducing your food waste can help save money and improve your financial well-being while striving for a diet that contains less meat or dairy. Plus, including more seasonal produce can help boost your health.

Take the time to learn as much as you can from the above resources to make informed decisions about how you can reduce or even offset your diet's carbon footprint.

Charlotte is a freelance features writer, specializing in wellness, travel, and lifestyle. She has been writing professionally since 2014, with experience in journalism, PR, proofreading, editing, content writing, and copywriting.